Bored of the same old movies?

In 2004-2005, Animal planet released two videos- “Mermaid- The Body Found” and “Mermaids- The New Evidence” as a two hour special for Monster Week. The programme was such a huge hit that it drew an audience as large as 3.5 million from around the world, with its “documentary” like appearance that gave it its credibility.

Viewers watched in astonishment as people identified as U.S. government and scientists looked straight into the camera and told the public about incredible evidence for the existence of mermaids.

But the hype was short-lived as animal planet soon revealed that the programme was a cleverly crafted hoax and all the people on the video were actors, it even put up a disclaimer in the end saying that some of the events in the programme were works of fiction.

And self-admittedly, it was to increase Animal Planet’s viewership.

Naturally, it drew quite a lot of flak in the aftermath.

But here’s why what they did was not entirely wrong

Mermaids is a show that falls under the category of mockumentaries.

By now, you would’ve figured out what a mockumentary.

For those of you who haven’t- in a nutshell, a mockumentary as the name suggests, is a mock documentary.

While documentaries lay out serious information and seek to educate, a mockumentary consists of fictional information laid out in the form of a documentary primarily to entertain the audience.

But apart from entertaining the audience, here is how you can put this potent genre to use!

To suspend disbelief

There numerous unexplored topics that many filmmakers steer clear from because they know the audience won’t buy them. That’s because some of these topics, like philosophy or mythology, (take the mermaid case for example) that don’t have imminent evidence to amount to their truth, are hard to accept if given directly to the audience (unless you’re clearly labelling your film as work of fiction). But when presented in the form of a documentary which is by its very nature, a serious take on things, it tends to acquire a similar treatment from the audience.

Being audience ourselves, we can’t deny that we treat a work of fiction differently from a documentary, in terms of the reliability that we attach to them.

That’s exactly what Charlie Foley, Mermaid's executive producer, creator, and writer cashed upon. He says that the sole purpose of the film was to suspend disbelief among the audience about the existence of mermaids, and to urge them to not rule out that possibility.

This makes a mockumentary different from a parody!

First, a parody is a satirical performance ridiculing or taking a dig at another real performance, but a mockumentary need not necessarily do that.

A mockumentary is essentially a movie with fictional events that are in the form of a documentary.

Does that mean your mockumentary cannot be a parody?

Your mockumentary could be a parody is you wanted it to, it’s just that not all of them are parodies, as the name leads you to think.

Take the movies This is Spinal Tap and Cash is all we need for example. Both of them satirical mockumentaries on the then contemporary bands Spinal Tap and The Beatles.

In a time when people are getting beat up for having a difference of opinion from the mainstream, mockumentaries could be the hero of the hour!

With little to no notable movies in this genre, the time is ripe to experiment with it!

Happy filming! ☺